Predictions

[SkatingAnalyst]

Is this rule also applied to the GP final qualifiers??

How are you BelleFill Yuna?
You must be really happy for Yu-Na doing so well this season.

I've never seen the 3/country applied to the GP final qualifiers but
I think that's THE RULE for any GP Competitions.

If that happens to Miki... I feel really sorry for her.
She made a remarkable comeback after the injury.

 

[Mathman]

I'm pretty sure (I just re-read the document ) that there is no 3 per country rule for the GP finals.

If Kostner or Flatt ends up with 24 points (they can't both do so), she will beat Ando -- or anyone else at 24 points -- on the first tie-breaker no matter what the CoP point scores add up to.

 

[shallwedansu]

Apparently Na Young Kim is participating COR....
(with so much controversy)

What's the controversy about?

 

[bmelanie]

It was actually somewhat ridiculous; no fault at all on Na-Young's part, but utter uselessness and lethargy on the part of the Korean Figure Skating Federation (or whatever it's called in English...). So not really controversy, more like indignation and uproar from Na-Young fans and supporters.

Two female skaters (Takeda Nana and Sarah Meier) dropped out of the Cup of Russia competition due to injuries which meant Na-Young could potentially compete, so Na-Young asked the Korean federation if they would request an invite from the Russian federation (or at least tell them that she'd like to compete) but all she got in reply was that if she got an invite, she got one but if she didn't, she didn't and the Korean federation weren't really going to do anything proactive. Plus, technically skaters aren't allowed to compete in two consecutive GP competitions and Na-Young was already admitted for the NHK trophy, so the Korean federation thought it would be difficult for her to receive an invite anyway.

But then a group of Na-Young fans and Korean figure skate enthusiasts (the 'figure skating gallery' at dcinside.com, to be precise) felt that the federation was just being plain lazy and pessimistic since there had been numerous cases where skaters had been permitted to skate consecutive GP events in extenuating circumstances, so they emailed the Russian organization themselves to ask whether Na-Young could compete. Meanwhile, the Russian federation itself was in a bit of a dither since two of the competitors had unexpectedly dropped out and they responded warmly to the inquiry, saying of course Na-Young could compete as long as she sent in all the required forms by the due time (and by then there were only a few hours left). So the fans alerted Na-Young and her parents of this fact and for the next few hours they hurriedly filled out all the forms and called the Korean federation to ask for help, only to receive the answer that no one was currently at the office at this late hour. In the end, with only seven minutes left for the deadline, Na-Young and her family sent in the forms by email promising that the Korean fed would send the rest of the official stuff soon (which they did, hurriedly returning to the office in the evening to do what they should have done days ago) and promptly received an invite from the Russian fed by fax.

...Jesus, how did we ever get a skater like Yu-Na with such a dreadful skating fed...

 

[Mathman]

Thanks for the explanation, bmelanie. Veru interesting. Go Na-young!

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

GPF Finalists

3.Mao SILVER GOLD
4.Yukari SILVER SILVER

Your predicting here for Mao and Yukari. I got bashed for doing that. Regardless of your predictions, one has to wait for the outcome. Mao and Yukari need at least at least bronze to tie Ando.

Otherwise it's just like mine above.
--------------------------------------------------
Oh, I just read bMelanie's post on Na Young who will be skating in both CoP and NHK. This could change things somewhat.

 

[Betty07]

Men:
1. Brian JOUBERT
2. Tomas VERNER
3. Jeremy ABBOTT


Ladies:
1. Carolina KOSTNER
2. Rachael FLATT
3. Alissa CZISNY

 

[missysays]

Men
G-Jeremy Abbott
S-Alban Preaubert
B-Brian Joubert

Ladies
G-Fumie Suguri
S-Rachael Flatt
B-Carolina Kostner or maybe Alissa Czisny

Pairs
G-Zhang/Zhang
S-Kawaguchi/Smirnov
B-Volosozhar/Morozov

Dance
G-Domnina/Shabalin
S-Davis/White
B-Khoklova/Novitski

 

[berrycute]

The whole ladies field:

1. Carolina Kostner
2. Rachael Flatt
3. Alissa Czisny
4. Fumie Suguri
5. Kimmie Meissner
6. Julia Sebestyen
7. Kim Na-Young
8. Alena Leonova
9. Elena Glebova
10. Katarina Gerboldt
11. Nina Petushkova

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Does anyone know about Na Young's skating ability? I think I saw her last season and found she had problems with basics, but I am not sure it was her.

 

[demarinis5]

G. Kostner/Fumie- if they mess up look for Rachael to take the gold.
S. Racheal
B. Alissa

 

[ckomodo]

Is there a results so far thread somewhere, I know the Skate America, Skate Canada and this weekend's results, but have seen no coverage etc,. of the rest. I assume Chan and Rochette are in the final for sure, who else?

 

[Pikachuusb]

1st off I have to say.... Alissa got COR?! Woo-Hoo!!!!

Unfortunately I havent been able to see ANY Grand Prix events since Skate America, since Ive been moving the last several weeks to Las Vegas from LA. Im still in the process of painting our new place and unpacking(who really needs 2 huge U-Haul trucks of stuff anyways?? ) I'll be glad when this process is over and I can catch up on icenetwork. Til then here are my guesstimations/predictions:

Ladies:
1. Carolina Kostner
2. Rachael Flatt
3. Alissa Czisny (please make the podium!!)

Men:
1. Brian Joubert
2. Tomas Verner
3. Jeremy Abbott
hoping Kevin Van Der Perren sneaks onto the podium

Pairs:
1. Zhang/Zhang
2. Kawaguchi/Smirnov
3. Volosozhar/Morozov

Ice Dance
1. Domnina/Shabalin
2. Davis/White
3. Khoklova/Novitski

ok Im off to finish unpacking hopefully everyone has a terrific day!!

 

[Bill508]

Fumie will take the gold at Cup of Russia

Ladies:

Gold: Fumie
Silver: Meier
Bronze: Kostner

 

[Medusa]

Ladies
1. Flatt
2. Suguri
3. Meissner

Ice-Dance
1. Davis/White
2. Cappellini/Lanotte
3. Khokhlova/Novitski
This is wishful thinking. Everyone knows who will win this - and see, that's why I don't watch ice-dancing, it utterly predictable but at the same time incomprehensible. E.g. Cappellini/Lanotte had the highest technical score in the OD and FD at Cup of China - but they got with their rather conventional, but very pretty FD 5 points less PCS than Domnina/Shabalin with their disconnected, over-concentrated looking and strange FD and also 5 points less PCS than Belbin/Agosto with their absolutely superficial and cheesy Tosca routine. At least Belbin/Agosto looked good while being superficial - but Domnina/Shabalin looked hideous and the skate was also hideous. Sorry, I watched that competition while ironing (Eurosport has repeats of the Grand Prix during the week) and while watching it I realised why I normally don't watch it.

Pairs
1. Volosozhar/Morosov
2. Kawaguchi/Smirnov
3. Zhang/Zhang
On a shallow and absolutely superficial note: Does anyone know if Smirnov will grow his hair a bit again? I preferred it a bit longer. But he is so good looking.... Trankov is very handsome too, I was amazed at TEB how huge the guy is - he looks way taller in reality than on TV.

Men
This is a really good one. There are 6 guys who could easily make the podium: Préaubert (more PCS this time please!), KVDP, Joubert, Voronov, Abbott and Verner. It's actually like the mini-Europeans because if you asked me who will have a chance at Euros this years I would have said Joubert, Préaubert, KVDP, Verner and Voronov (with Brezina, Schultheiss and Ponsero in the mix). So let's see... I think Abbott will win these mini-Europeans. But it's going to be really exciting - I think everyone of those six guys can win this, though KVDP, Préaubert and Voronov get very low PCS and would have to rely on Verner, Joubert and Abbott to screw up.

I am also looking forward to see Rippon and Borudulin meeting again after Junior Worlds - Borudulin had the better placement at his first competition but with a very watered down program, Rippon on the other hand didn't have that much luck - but is actually trying the tricks.

1. Abbott
2. Verner
3. Voronov

 

[dancingqueen]

Ladies

1. Carolina Kostner
2. Fumie Suguri
3. Rachael Flatt

Men

1. Joubert
2. Verner
3. Voronov
4. Abbott
5. Preaubert

I may change my mind later for men.

Dance

1. Domnina & Shabalin
2. Davis & White
3. Khokhlova & Novitski

 

[cosmos]

Does anyone know about Na Young's skating ability? I think I saw her last season and found she had problems with basics, but I am not sure it was her.

Yes, her jumps are pretty good, but as you said, her basics are not that good.

 

[Hsuhs]

Borudulin had the better placement at his first competition but with a very watered down program

He was still recovering from an injury he'd received this past summer. That is why he replaced all his 3A's with doubles (due to missed training time). Now he's hoping to get back in form in time for CoR.

 

[cassieandcheetah]

Go Meryl and Charlie!!! I hope they'll be on top of the podium, but it does worry me that their CD will be a waltz....

This might be a bit unrelated, but I was very angry with Nicky and Chris's commends on the free dance portion of Skate Canada. It's quite obvious that they're fans of Crone and Poirier, but the way they kept saying that they did not like Davis/White's style and even predicted that Crone and Porier might pull an upset. I just wished somebody could silence them because it was so unprofessional, much like the way Scott Hamilton acted in 2002. If you ask me, I do not understand this hype about Crone and Poerier. yes, they're competent skaters, but they skate too far apart, Crone's arm movements are too exaggerated, and their twizzles are so slow. Yes, they have a kind of romantic subtlety to them a bit reminiscent of Virtue/Moir, but I don't think they are THAT impressive on technical levels.

 

[mycelticblessing]

PAIRS:
Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao--> It's theirs to lose
Tatiana Volosozhar / Stanislav Morozov--> Just lovely this season
Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Smirnov--> I can see their LP hurting them here

Dance:
Oksana Domnina / Maxim Shabalin
Meryl Davis / Charlie White
Jana Khokhlova / Sergei Novitski-->I would love to see them higher than this, but their programs this year don't seem to be working great this point in time.

Ladies:
Carolina Kostner--> Will probably skate great after the Skate Canada disaster
Rachael Flatt
Fumie Suguri

Men:
Tomas Verner--> I can never quite count him out. Maybe he'll be on.
Brian Joubert
Jeremy Abbott
Sergei Voronov

The Men's field here is so deep! I didn't even know where to place KVDP!